Names, brands, writing, and the language of commerce.

September 20, 2018

September linkfest

Mountain Dew, the neon-yellow-green soft drink brand owned by PepsiCo, evidently failed to consult anyone in Scotland before it introduced its new ad slogan, “Epic thrills start with a chug.” If it had, it would have learned that chug is Scottish slang for masturbate. (Jelisa Castrodale for Vice, via Language Log)

That word: It does not mean what you think it means. Not in Scotland, anyway. (Via @jaysebro)

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You know about the Wayback Machine. But did you know about the Web Design Museum, an online collection of “over 900 carefully selected and sorted web sites that show web design trends between the years 1995 and 2005”?

TheFacebook.com, 2004

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Launched in 1923 and still going strong, Echo Scarfs – yes, that’s how they pluralize it – got its name from the initials of co-founder Edgar C. Hyman … plus cOmpany. (Via trademark lawyer Jessica Stone Levy, who observes that Echo has “a fantastic brand story.”)

Wretched XS: “Apple’s new iPhone names are bad, so it’s hard to see where it goes from here.” (Shannon Liao for The Verge)

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The business of corporate myth-making: “It’s no longer enough, apparently, for a business to have a charismatic founder—now the business itself must have a compelling biography. To craft these narratives, companies enlist professional storytellers.” (Jessica Loudis for The Baffler)

A long(ish) read about brands that want to be your buddies on social media: “These new, personal bonds between companies and customers feel uncanny—the brands are not real human friends, exactly, but neither are they faceless corporations anymore, writes Ian Bogost. (The Atlantic) [A personal note: I have never been singled out by a company on social media for any sort of rewards. Evidently I’m no one’s idea of an “influencer.”]